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Obama: Cliff deal ‘just one step’

Fiscal cliff winners & losers

The consequences of failing to extend the country’s borrowing limit are catastrophic, the president said just after the House vote on Tuesday, and he simply won’t negotiate over it.

Obama’s success rests on a strategy that served him during both his 2012 campaign and the high-stakes fiscal cliff talks: define his opponents early and drive up public opinion in his favor.

He will cast Republicans as reckless as they pursue steep cuts to popular entitlement programs in exchange for a debt limit increase. White House officials don’t view the sell as a difficult lift because, as they see it, Republicans are threatening to topple the world economy to slice benefits for elderly Medicare recipients — not exactly a winning message, Obama aides snicker.

The president is likely to follow the playbook of the fiscal cliff fight and almost every other major policy battle over the past 18 months, initiating a campaign to persuade voters and mobilizing small businesses, labor unions, corporate America and Wall Street to exert pressure on lawmakers.

But reality won’t be as clear as his no-negotiating rhetoric suggests. His decision to accept a two-month delay in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester — which comes due at the same time as the debt limit — guarantees that he’ll have to enter into talks with Republicans.

Republicans insist they’re on the right side of public opinion in this round, citing a CBS News poll last month that 68 percent of Americans don’t want the debt limit raised. After agreeing to $620 billion in tax revenue to avert the fiscal cliff, congressional Republican leaders claim they will accept nothing less than a dollar in cuts for every dollar increase in borrowing authority.

“The president liked to point out on the campaign trail that most Americans supported the idea of taxing the rich,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Thursday on the Senate floor. “What he conveniently left out is that even more Americans support the idea of cutting spending.”

What remains unclear is whether either party truly believes that the other will allow the country to default on its obligations — an outcome that top Republicans and Democrats say would be devastating. But the entrenched positions ensure that, at the very least, the debt limit fight could make the fiscal cliff standoff look tame.

“In many ways that may be harder because we gotta get some spending under control,” Senate Minority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) said. “And that’s something the president talks a lot about, but he never seems to be willing to engage in it.”

Obama won’t negotiate over the debt limit, aides say, because he is determined to break the cycle of using the country’s borrowing limit as a bargaining chip.

“I will not have another debate with this Congress over whether or not they should pay the bills that they’ve already racked up through the laws that they passed,” Obama said. “Let me repeat: We can’t not pay bills that we’ve already incurred. If Congress refuses to give the United States government the ability to pay these bills on time, the consequences for the entire global economy would be catastrophic — far worse than the impact of a fiscal cliff.”

Readers' Comments (297)

Expect the Dems to play it like these words were never uttered. As usual, it will be shamelessly shunted down their memory hole along with all their other contradictions, false promises, and outright lies.

Yes Republican are threatening to topple the world economy just so they can massive cut medicare and social security benefits.

And that is a winning strategy?

What Obama must do is say that he won't negotiate with the debt ceiling period. The Congress must send up a clean bill. If they do not then Obama has 3 options to raise the debt ceiling without Congress.

Except for we political junkies and talking heads; does anybody in their right mind believe the average US citizen has a clue as to what happens if the debt ceiling isn't raised? Personally, I would love to see Obama not negotiate whatsoever with the Republicans, but let's be real, the Pubs aren't going to take what happened two days ago lying down and I hope they don't; I would like nothing more than 2014 be their waterloo, but by then who knows; we may need 2 forms of ID and a birth certificate to qualify to vote in the next cycle.

Yes Republican are threatening to topple the world economy just so they can massive cut medicare and social security benefits.

Maybe you think spending 24% of GDP and taking in 16% of GDP running trillion dollar a year deficits is sustainable and will not eventually collapse the US economy, but you and Obama are pretty much alone in that thinking.

Everyone else with a brain realizes that our spending must be reigned in and that almost all of our spending is determined by interest on the debt, entitlements and defense. Defense and entitlements need to be trimmed or the US will become Greece, it is that simple.

The only hostage victims in this situation are the poor children who are going to inherit the mess being created by the most fiscally irresponsible President in history. Obama took a 10 trillion debt and turned it into 16 trillion in 4 years and he is on track to break 20 trillion before he leaves office. What a nightmare.

So do deficit reduction but pay the bills you already racked up and voted for. Separate issues. We have never played with the debt ceiling under any President in our history and there have been times our debt ratio was higher. Do deficit reduction with the sequester and budget bills where it rightly belongs

(By the way, there were several deals on the table even this time around and in 2011 and the morons rejected it)

chalons there is no selective graph. repubs, dems, and independents really do not want us to cut social security and medicare over the military. most would have wanted us to save the trillions we spent in Iraq and most want us out of Afghanistan now. repub base is skewed 65+ and many are on socsec and paid their lives into it so its understandable they poll that way.

Neither side's majorities are arguing against reducing the deficit. The President clearly put several combinations of spending cuts and revenues together this fiscal cliff debate and before and even repubs acknowledged it. But rejected it. The disagreement on either side was always in the ratio of spending cuts and revenues in the offered deficit reduction deals. At one point repubs wanted no revenues at all and rejected a 10:1 deal in the debates (and some apparently wanted it from the poor - because they are the "takers").

Still regardless, deficit reduction belongs with the budget debates and sequester (which was part of the budgets they passed in 2011). Debt ceiling is paying bills the Congress already spent and voted for. Selective was you guys deluding yourselves through November on where the country is. Remember that. You are just as wrong now.

That is why there is no deficit reduction thus far - extremist partisans like chalons. Pushing the folks on the right and scaring them of potential primaries. Repubs are only one third of the government (and even that because of redistricting since more Americans voted for Dems to Congress actually). Yet you are still pushing the idea of one-sided cuts as the way to deficit reduction. I'm sure we've all considered your super intelligent, unbelievably obscure suggestion on cutting waste only. And factored that into it.

Regardless even if you think you are right, what about reality? Your way lost in the court of public opinion. And you cant force it on everyone. So what about taking what you can get and still get deficit reduction? Hello? Anybody upstairs? You cant get what you are asking for. So get what's next best to you. That's how the real life works.

'mobilizing small businesses, labor unions, corporate America and Wall Street to exert pressure on lawmakers" Maybe the other entities support Obama's economic policies but I run a small business and I seriously do not know one small business owner that supports Obama, Where did the writer of this article receive his information from?

wizard33 I am a small business owner and I supported the President's position over Romney's. Your circle of business owners are obviously limited and commenting on that personal insularity is pretty much useless to anyone but yourself and the same circles really. Or to further a self-fulfilling delusion that was demonstrated in November ("I dont know anyone voting for Obama. Most of my friends and acquaintances are voting for Romney so Romney is going to win"). Of the 60 million folks who voted for Obama, surely several millions of them are small business owners. You cant truly believe that all business owners are like you, can you? If so, what was the point of typing that? Could it be that you are just as misinformed in forming your policy preferences as you are on the reality of what the majority of we the people really believe?

Republicans will have to learn to swallow the truth that new revenues provide funds for reducing the deficit and paying down the national debt just as well as cutting spending does. We need a balanced approach consistently, which is why tax reform and cutting spending should go hand in hand.

As for the debt limit as Republican "leverage," they cannot fail to raise the debt ceiling without violating our Constitution's mandate. It is the constitutional duty of all members of Congress to honor their debts and pay them, which requires raising the debt ceiling to pay the tabs for all expenses Congress has already incurred. Knowing that defaulting is a violation of the constitutional mandate (that no one shall question the debt of the United States), knowing that defaulting will cost US trillions in extra interest and will destabilize markets to the point of chaos and will crash our stock market and will get our credit rating expensively downgraded, Republicans cannot threaten all this damage in order to get something else they want (be it more unaffordable goodies for the richest or destroying more of our safety net). To use the threat of NOT raising the debt ceiling is an act of terrorism and is treasonous. Anyone and everyone who would vote to default and intentionally inflict all that great damage to our country should be arrested and tried for treason. A leverage for Republicans? I don't think so. Surely President Obama has learned by now we should not negotiate with terrorists.

What Obama must do is say that he won't negotiate with the debt ceiling period. The Congress must send up a clean bill. If they do not then Obama has 3 options to raise the debt ceiling without Congress.

Dollar for dollar exchange is not a deal, it's a give away. The republicans should demand a dollar for four dollar deal with would be renewed in 3 months. If the republicans fail at this, they will lose the core of their party and it will be their end.

If no one protects our children and grand children, the future of this country is truly very dark.

So, 'Rules for Radicals" has become the new Dem playbook. This strategy has worked in the election and the tax fight. Since the Republicans are too stupid to replace "Tears" Boner, they deserve to be slammed again.